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Gaza three-year-old treated in London now has hope for future

Hala was born with a hole in her heart, and her vital medical supplies were destroyed in recent bombing. Photo: The Sun on Sunday

"There's a hope for Hala now," Emma Scanlon, CEO of a charity who rescued a three-year-old girl from Gaza and brought her to London for life-saving heart surgery, told Good Morning Britain.

Hala al Massri was born with a hole in her heart. Her condition is treatable, but in Gaza there is no facility to operate.

She was earmarked to have surgery through the Chain of Hope charity, which helps children with cardiac diseases access treatment; however the recent conflict meant this was put on hold and the charity didn't think they could get her out.

But Hala was running out of time - her condition was deteriorating, then her home was destroyed by an Israeli shell and she lost all of her life-saving oxygen.

It took the combined efforts of Chain of Hope, the Red Cross, the UK Government, and The Sun newspaper - who calls Hala the "Angel of Gaza" - and a gruelling three-day journey, but against the odds, she has arrived safely at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

"She had this incredible three day journey out of Gaza, across the border, into Jordan, and then on to London," Sharon Hendry, The Sun journalist who led the campaign for Hala's rescue, said.

"On the flight to London the doctor that was travelling with her from the Red Cross lost her pulse. So it was touch and go."